Norwin hires new athletic director in 5-4 vote
Norwin hired an athletic director Monday who was Greensburg Salem’s athletic director the past 20 months and previously was an assistant athletic director at Norwin.
Mike Burrell Jr. was hired by the school board on a 5-4 vote at a pro-rated school year salary of $84,000. Burrell’s first day on the job will be Aug. 31, the first day of school.
With no discussion before the vote, directors Brian Carlton, Darlene Ciocca, Tony Corsa, William Essay and Patrick Lynn voted to hire Burrell. Donald Rhodes, Robert Wayman, Ray Kocak and Joanna Jordan opposed his hiring.
Burrell replaces Brandon Rapp, who left the athletic director’s job at Norwin for a similar position at Hempfield in May. In the interim, the school board last month appointed Timothy McCabe, a former Norwin football coach and assistant high school principal, as acting athletic director with the intention of hiring a fulltime person.
Rhodes, who declined to comment following the virtual meeting, said his opposition to hiring Burrell “speaks more to the (hiring) process, not the person.”
“I feel very cheated by the process,” Rhodes said.
The school board received 94 applicants for the position and narrowed the field to 11 candidates. Burrell was recommended for the position.
Carlton, board president, declined to comment on his vote for Burrell.
Essay, board vice president, defended the hiring process, saying Burrell went through the vetting process and was picked as the top candidate.
“I feel the man has the qualifications, and he knows Norwin,” Essay said.
Greensburg Salem hired Burrell in January 2019 to replace Lynn Jobe, who had retired. Burrell had been the athletic director at North Catholic.
This is the second time Norwin has hired Burrell as its athletic director. In 2013, Burrell was an assistant athletic director under Randy Rovesti when the school board hired him to oversee the athletic program. But Burrell resigned before he took the job to go to North Catholic.
When Burrell left Norwin, Rapp was hired as his replacement.
One resident, Lori Kukich, complained that Burrell was hired as athletic director once before and left.
Kukich said she believed the hiring process was done quickly and that “this all seems like an inside job with the board.”
Joe Napsha is a TribLive reporter covering Irwin, North Huntingdon and the Norwin School District. He also writes about business issues. He grew up on Neville Island and has worked at the Trib since the early 1980s. He can be reached at jnapsha@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.